7.0 Returning to the Big Room: Design Response

I began this inquiry with the question: How can women’s experience of “otherness” in the evangelical Christian church be leveraged for change in that community? My response is shaped by the experiences and study described above. I am proposing a two-part model that cultivates relationships and supports the flow of information in the evangelical Christian church. The first part of the model entails inviting women to form small groups to share and discuss their experiences of evangelical Christian communities. In this stage, storytelling functions primarily to affirm and encourage women. The second part of the model brings women together with church leadership to share stories about what the community’s norms and practices mean in their lives. Here, storytelling works to bridge differences in a way that forms a more complete sense of the community. Together, these processes strengthen the connections between the parts that make the evangelical Christian whole, rendering a community where women’s stories are included as ongoing sources of wisdom and instruction in the evangelical Christian faith.